my eight minutes memoir

Submitted into Contest #45 in response to: Write a story about inaction.... view prompt

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"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor;it must be demanded by the oppressed" was Martin Luther king quote.it is one of my favorite quote of all time as black person his words given to you as bible and you don't really have to read it you will learn it through your community and you definitely should know it its most likely like your go to book or something.and i don't think there is not even one black person who don't know about him.when you hear his words you can feel the struggle,pain,love,anger and hope all at once and i think we all black people had hope cause may be the thought of him passing through the struggles and overcoming the challenges brought partial change somehow give us hope and i think that's why we listen to his work.

I myself grow up listening to his words and things that he changed during his time. and i usually look at my daughter and say to myself i hope i contribute something to this world so that my daughter won't have to feel scared anytime the cops pulled her over or that her skin should make her less than others.i wish i would have brought her to better world where she don't have to ask her partner that he should mention that she is black before meeting his parents, to the world where she wouldn't have to hear that her ancestors were a slave or that her race is a platform for disease,drug dealer,thief,murderers,thugs, illiteracy and also that her features being compared to animal. i hoped that whenever a new new year came up i hoped she shouldn't thank God cause she passed the year without getting shot (herself,her family or friends) or killed.i hope that she dream to live long life freely and i hoped that may be me do little contribution can benefit her and also those who came after her.so that her worry only about being kid or being an adult when she become one not this racist shit cause i know how i grow up.

As a kid we use to say we are gonna live till we eighty, seventy fifty, forty..we were kids so we don't really know how to count or know numbers or know what was going on at that moment so no one can blame us .as we tend to grow we see so many of our neighbors kids our peers get shot for some reason i don't even get .as i grow little older i start noticing the reasons and experience them. i don't have to ask anybody or get confused because i can see it right there in front of me. i see so many movies about people of color getting mistreated by the society and my family will remind me what i should do or don't and i will tell to myself change will come we have gone a little better since Martin Luther king it happen 50 years ago and i know its a little bit ironic considering that only little change happen since 1964 but still it brought change for our community.

but everyday i will see black people get shot for an assumption being armed , for being drug dealer or cause he's huge and that it felt like threat for the cops and whenever that happens we all march wearing shirts saying "black lives matter " ,we hold sign of with arm fist up ,we kneel ,we shout for help,we take pictures for social media ,we draw a person who died on street as reminder, we light candles, we put flowers ,balloons but nobody can hear us cause no evidence.

but now social media and this smartphone has brought this weapon for us like images and videos which we black people use it as our bodyguard or weapon against cops so they wont kill us. this things appearing somehow change things by showing true and clear racism but that doesn't change the fact that white supremacy , police brutality. and black people slavery will stop soon. now that i am old enough i see things happening every month in different form if you get shot for jogging the next month you will die out of breath with police knees on your neck,if not on neck then you may probably get killed cause the cop forget her apartment room and so on....so i saw this and i am like where we going from this. racism is being filmed and nobody can do nothing about it.so i was scared what would i do for my kid what if she get shot out of curiosity or died out of breath what can i do? those were my questions to myself. and for them police why do you love you black hair,shoes,shirts,bag,car,paints,pictures...but got disgusted when it is on person were my question,but little do i know that this month was my turn .i already knew it once i was on their hands its over they came in cause the owner call them cause i forged 20$ and the funny thing is this time they use same technique they put me outside throw me to the ground with three of them over my legs holding it down though i wasn't resisting and one of them on my neck with his knee on my neck and i was just saying "i cant breath" "i can't breath "and i can feel my nose bleeding i can see people filming i can see people shouting i can see there tyre, i can see people approaching then i finally see my mama and my mama was dead few years back that's when i say "they are gonna kill me" and it only take them 8 minutes to take my breath away for 20$ bill that was how much i was worth . if i had known what i know now when i was child rather than wishing 80 years of life i could have wished for better 8 minutes.


so my memoir to world is that i hope that i am the last black person who got killed by a racist act and i hope that me being dead is wake up call for every human to raise voice for black people or every society who can consider as minority.at the least of it if me being dead brought slightest change i might have said that i bring little contribution to this world so that my daughter wont have to keep her hands high or start filming whenever cops are around if i had change that by little and if i can make it better and if my daughter saw that i would have heard my daughter saying "daddy change the world".

i am random black person who got killed just like the rest before me i mayn't be role model for you to follow or got good life to write about something for you to read all but i don't so if my 8 minutes bring little change then i guess this would have been my memoir to you all.



June 07, 2020 17:03

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